Opposites
by Texmaris
Summary: Mikan lived in a a kingdom where all the subjects had a special power, an Alice. One day, she was recruited in a group made of mostly teens to track down and suppress a trio of strong rebels. And she bumps into their leader. "Black Cat". NxM, HxR


Opposites

Summary: Mikan was a normal girl, living in a kingdom where special powers (called Alices) were common. Her control over her power was only mediocre, though her Alice itself was unusual: the power of nullifying other Alices. One day, she was unexpectedly called upon to chase after a trio of rebels with a small group of underage power-users like herself. But will they hear the truth behind the rebels' actions after Mikan bumps into the ringleader, "Black Cat"… literally? MikanxNatsume, HotaruxRuka

Disclaimer: I do not own anything except the plot and some of the characters.

Temisu: I don't write romance much, I'm not that good at writing action, and my writing style isn't the best either. This is my first Gakuen Alice fiction with my own small twist, and so constructive criticism is highly encouraged. Most of the OCs were created and used by myself and my friend, such as "Silver Swallow" in the prologue.

PROLOGUE

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--

"Hotaru-chaaaaan!" called a teenager girl with brown pigtails as she enthusiastically ran towards the girl on her front door. Said girl, who had short, black hair, didn't change her bored expression as she took out a strange looking gun…

BAM!

"H-H-Hot-t-tar-r-r-ru-ch-chan…" squeaked the pigtailed girl, half-conscious as her friend held onto what she called the 'baka gun'.

"Hello, baka (idiot)," greeted Hotaru emotionlessly, putting away her 'weapon', which she had, by the way, invented by herself. "I told you to not hug me when I'm near the door."

"Itai… but you didn't have to hurt me…" complained Mikan Sakura, rubbing her head in pain as she watched her best friend settle herself down on the couch. "What do you want to drink? Tea? Coffee?"

"Tea," stated Hotaru bluntly as her friend hurried away, who was a little annoyed but still glad to see her best friend. After all, Hotaru Imai was not your average person, even inside of the kingdom. She was the _princess_, or should I say, the extremely rebellious princess who likes to sneak out of the castle and doesn't get along with her brother much, who's the king right now. He was just and fair, but Hotaru stated that he was too strict for his own good and that she hoped she wouldn't become like him someday. She freely sells her inventions, makes millions of dollars, and is labeled as eccentric by many of the citizens.

Mikan had a drastically different background. She was an orphan, as her father and mother died when she was really young, and lived on her own with support from the government. She was a mediocre Alice user, but her Alice itself was strange; it was the Alice of nullification. Hotaru was allowed to visit her once a week, as long as she was in disguise, when Mikan wasn't busy in school. She came in through the door, tea tray in hand and sat down across from her best friend, serving the tea.

"Ne, Hotaru-chan, I've been having strange dreams lately," she said, sipping some tea. Hotaru just stared at her, giving her a look that clearly read, 'Well of course, you big dummy, aren't all dreams strange?' Mikan got what she was implying and quickly shook her head. "No! I mean that this one keeps repeating itself over and over again, night after night, and I have no idea what's going on. I don't know whether or not it's a nightmare or a regular dream…"

"Tell me about it then," stated Hotaru bluntly, staring at Mikan with a bit of interest. "But keep in mind that recurring dreams are common."

"Hotaruuuu! I'm serious!" whined Mikan, but she immediately shut up when Hotaru started to pull out her Baka Gun again. "Okay, okay, I'll get to it. Usually, the dream starts out with me walking on a forest path, but no matter how long I walked, there was no end to it. Suddenly, the trees would catch on fire without warning and I would be thrown back, terrified and curious. The animals all seem to be okay though and weren't surprised by the fire and just went about their things, and I think there was this girl with two faces inside the fire. She was saying something like, 'Don't put out the fire' on one face and the other said, 'Don't come any closer.' Last night, the new part was that somebody kicked me from behind and I fell to the ground, and all I remember about them was that the person was wearing black clothes…"

Hotaru stared at Mikan indifferently, and pulled out her Baka Gun (again). "Stop worrying over a stupid dream, idiot."

--

The forest was deathly silent. No wind was blowing through the trees, leaving an empty silence where the leaves should have been rustling. No light was shown through the area, casting an eerie darkness in the area as if night had already come. Most animals were inside, cozying up in their homes, leaving out the bitter cold that swept through the air. To any outsider, the forest would seem dead, scary, or boring.

But to three, this forest was home.

In a cave near the middle of the dense forest, a fire crackled as two cloaked figures sat near it, masks on. The one who was roasting three fish on sticks over the fire had navy swallowtail-styled hair that ended at the middle of her back. Her mask, designed to look like a bird, was metallic blue on the upper part and silver on the lower. The beak was dark gray, and the color circulates so that it connects and surrounds the eyehole.

On the other corner of the cave was a black/indigo-haired teenager writing in a notebook as a report for the day. His black cat mask wasn't completely black; the middle area was a caramel-orange color, as if alluding to the danger of fire. Behind the mask, the dark eyes of the male stared critically at the book, as if searching for any errors on the page that he could had missed. As usual, there was none.

For a few more minutes, the time passed in silence, save for the crackles of the flame as it attempted to engulf the fish, but failed. Hardly any movement was detected from the two, though the female did turn the fish from time to time to cook them more evenly and her companion flipped a page in his book. Eventually, the bird-mask looked up.

"Did anything out of the ordinary happen today?" she asked, her eyes fixed on the cat-mask as she turned another fish on the stick.

Behind the cat-mask, his eyes flitted across the page before answering with a, "No." Silently, the bird-mask nodded and went back to the roasting, eyes fixated on the fire as if its dance was the most interesting thing in the world.

There was a rustling right outside the cave, which caused both of them to look up, unsurprised to see a white rabbit-masked human with short, blonde hair. In his arms was an abundance of firewood, as well as trinkets dropped by others who had run off in the past and left items behind. Behind him, a hoard of animals followed, all of them trying to get his attention. He seemed disappointed that he couldn't play with the animals for now, and instead bid them farewell as he entered the abode.

Behind her mask, the female smirked. "Good job with the firewood and scouting, White Rabbit, and it seems like the animals like you as much as always," she greeted as the newcomer set down the wood in the woodpile. "Winter is coming quickly, and it'll be harder to find wood as it arrives." She glanced down at the fish. "Hm. Looks like dinner's early today."

As if on cue, White Rabbit's stomach grumbled, causing it to echo throughout the cave. At this, the cat-mask chuckled softly while bird-mask smirked. Rabbit blushed, not that any of them could see, but they could still tell. "Sh-shut up, Black Cat," he mumbled to his leader, who rarely showed signs of amusement. "I'm just hungry…"

"Come on, then," said the bird-mask, gesturing towards the fish. "Let's hurry up and eat it already, before it gets cold. We'll plan on what to do tomorrow after dinner." The other two nodded and walked closer to the fire. Each of them took a stick out of the fire and blew on the stick, except Cat. He just ate it, even when it was scalding hot.

"This is burnt…" observed Rabbit with a sweat drop as he turned the fish this way and that on the stick. "You left it in the fire too long, Silver Swallow."

Swallow rolled her eyes and bit into the fish. "So? I don't think you guys can do any better, since Cat would probably burn not just the food, but the whole cave down as well. You can't stand for animals to be killed, and that's why I have to do all of the cooking around here as well as hunting," she quipped, blowing on her fish some more. "Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean that I have to have good domestic skills… thank God… I hate housework…"

"We've noticed," retorted Cat rudely, taking another large bite out of his fish-on-a-stick, already halfway done. Swallow's eye twitched in annoyance and she looked as if she was going to yell at him, but she thought better of it and instead returned to her own meal. Rabbit glanced between his two formerly-arguing friends before he also continued to eat, already used to their habits.

They ate the rest of their dinner in silence as the rain started to fall heavily on the forest floor, giving off a dull, rhythmic pattering that spoke for them. Cat instinctively twitched and retreated farther into the cave; he didn't really have a problem with water, but it could be annoying sometimes. Rabbit was calming down all of the animals that had taken their cave as refuge from the rainstorm, and quite happily so. Swallow just sat at the edge of the cave, looking up at the rain nostalgically, though not completely sure why. Eventually, she stood up and stated, "I'm going out for a while."

Rabbit looked up, alarmed, and protested, "But it's freezing out there; you'll probably catch a cold and…" He was silenced by the look she gave him, as she clearly was saying, 'Do-you-think-I'm-going-to-get-sick-that-easily'. With that, she swiftly trotted out the cave and into the rain, hood off and firm.

Rabbit sighed as he leaned back on the cave wall, petting a young doe separated from her family on the head. He turned to Cat with a wry smile (not that Cat could see through their masks). "Well, it looks like we'll have to plan what to do later," he said meekly as a bird settled on his shoulder. Cat just grunted and started manipulating the fire to pass the time.

--

Swallow perched herself on top of the tallest tree in the forest, sitting in the squat position while she gazed up at the sky. The rain hit her mask noisily like a drum, but did she care? Not in the least. Instead, she was fixated at the moon, which was only just peeking from behind the dark clouds to show a waxing crescent.

She sighed and averted her eyes to a closer target; a sleeping kingdom with its castle on the highest peak in the middle. She, along with the other two, had heard rumors that nobody had ever entered the castle and come back out, and it is looked at with fear. She let a grim smile cross her face.

"Well," she murmured in a slight satisfaction, "if the secret got out, people WOULD go into a state of panic… what we're doing is worse than what they are…"

--

"Shoot," muttered an auburn-haired teen as he spotted a distinct, irregular shape on the top of the tree. "What is SHE doing here…" he wondered out loud, but didn't look much more into it as he pulled out a chain, fires practically blazing in his eyes. Unhesitatingly, he leapt up onto the nearest branch and ascended from there in jumps.

Of course, it didn't go unnoticed by the 'distinct, irregular shape', as she looked boredly at him when he arrived at the top of a nearby tree. She was also ready for his chain attack, and jumped up nimbly onto a nearby treetop, her eyes never breaking contact with his. "Tch, you're way too predictable, Hikari," she sneered, swiping a loose strand of hair away from her mask's eyehole in a lackadaisical manner. "If you really plan on taking down us rebels, you should know that Black Cat and White Rabbit are better than me when it comes to sensing things."

"I'll take that as a greeting, but I'm only planning on capturing you, Swallow," growled "Hikari" through gritted teeth, hurt showing on his face while he swept aside his dripping hair. "And, hopefully, I'll manage to snap you back to your senses and have you come back with us…"

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't plan on leaving Cat and Rabbit anytime soon," she grumbled, rolling her eyes. She jumped again, dodging a blinding attack from Taiyou before landing back on the first treetop. "Oh, and you already know how I'm already opposed to the government, Hikari…"

"What's up with the last name-calling?" demanded Hikari in an annoyed tone, crossing his arms like a child. "You used to call me Taiyou…"

"Times have changed, and I distinctly remember you calling me 'Swallow' earlier," retorted Swallow, also crossing her arms. She glanced at the moon again and cursed under her breath. "I've been up here for _that_ long… in the rain…? Anyway, it's been nice chatting with you, Hikari, but I've got to go now, back to those two unnervingly silent idiots." Without saying anything more, she dropped to the ground (yes, from the treetop down) and sprinted away through the trees, never looking back.

"HEY!" yelped Taiyou, also jumping down onto the ground, but it was already too late when he arrived at the bottom. She had gone back…

--

"They're _still _after you?"

"Tch, yeah. Of course. Well, it's more of a if '_he's _still after (me)' but yeah."

"They're getting more persistent, aren't they…? So what should we do about it?"

"I don't really know… hey, Cat, what do you think?"

"…Hn…"

"Speak out, darnit!"

--

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Temisu: So… tell me, should I continue this? Artemis was threatening to annoy me to death if I didn't at least put out the prologue, and as for the plotline, it was either this rebel idea or the vampire one. Also, I experimented on using a different writing style so if the writing seems strange, that's probably it. The prologue was originally just going to be the Cat, Rabbit and Swallow scene, but I added some more… And the dream scene was kind of rushed...

Anyway, I reviews are highly appreciated, as is constructive criticism. Please inform me of excessive ooc-ness. Thank you for reading.


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